milkingvsmissingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“milking” and “missing” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,739
“milking” frequency rank
#950
“missing” frequency rank
23689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature milking missing
Definition present participle and gerund of milk present participle and gerund of miss

Letter map: milking vs missing

Shared letters muted; letters that set milking and missing apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
milking
7 ch
missing

Corpus notes: milking and missing

milking and missing are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

milking is recorded at frequency rank #22,739, classified as averb. missing is at rank #950, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmɪsɪŋ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 23689, this pair ranks #407,482 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of milking vs missing

Shared letters: gimn. Private to "milking": kl. Private to "missing": s.

"milking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "missing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • milkingimlking · mikling · milikng · milkign · milkingg · milkinng · milkking · milknig
  • missingimssing · mising · misisng · missign · missingg · missinng · missnig · mmissing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "milking" and "missing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "milking" vs "missing" - which ranks higher?
"missing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #950 in our English list, against #22,739 for "milking". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "milking" and "missing".

  • Full dictionary entry for "milking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "missing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #407,482 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "milking" and "missing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "milking vs mulling". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #407,482 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list